opposing sexism and misogyny in Australia

Who killed women in 2017?

In 2017, the year to date figures for women killed are:

Male (alleged) perpetrators – 7

Female (alleged) perpetrators – 1

Women whose cause of death or perpetrator is unidentified – 1*

In addition to looking at the number of men charged in relation to the deaths of women, it is worth noting how many of the crimes with female perpetrators also have male perpetrators charged in relation to the death.

Crimes where only female perpetrators are named – 1 (11%)

Crimes involving male perpetrators – 8 (89%)

These are comprised of:

Crimes where only male perpetrators are named – 8 (89%)

Crimes where male and female perpetrators are named – 0 (0%)

The numbers of crimes by sex of alleged perpetrator and numbers of alleged perpetrators by sex are not the same because a single perpetrator may kill more than one woman or multiple perpetrators may jointly kill a woman.

Updated: 21 February 2017

Women Killed by Men:

These deaths are blogged individually to highlight the ongoing reality of male violence against women.

Deaths previously on watch list

Women naming male violence against women are often challenged to demonstrate why they focus on male killers, rather than all killers.

The counter arguments given to focusing on male violence against women are that not all men are killers or that not all women are killed by men, also that the deaths are not all directly because they are female.

While these things are true, they don’t change the reality, which is that the vast majority of killers of women are men, many known to the women. These women are not numbers, each death leaves behind shattered lives and families and we join the community in extending our deepest condolences to each and every victim’s family and friends, but we need to see the overall pattern if we want to understand and stop the deaths.

While we explain the rationale behind counting the numbers of women killed by men here, we are also keeping count of women killed overall, and the % killed by men, to demonstrate, using up to date Australian figures, that the overwhelming issue we are facing is male violence.

Year To date deaths

Year to date figures are always a partial snapshot of the final figures for the year and the numbers should not be taken as final until the year has concluded. Delayed perpetrator identification may cause the figures to change through the year, and afterwards. We list a death as male violence where a male perpetrator is obviously identified or formally charged. Many of the unidentified killers are statistically likely to also be male, in line with the annual statistics.

We include links to news articles to justify these figures. If you discover an inaccuracy, please email via the link at the bottom of the page.

We report the deaths of women as accurately as possible, updating these records as we are able to. If we have misreported any facts of this case, please contact us. We do not wish to affect any future court actions and will not knowingly publish posts or comments which do this.

Please bear in mind cultural sensitivities when sharing these reports. Where it is not culturally or legally appropriate to do so, we will not report the victim’s name.